Bay of Blood (aka. Twitch of the Death Nerve) (1971)
I end up getting a lot of movies to review for the site and because of that I don’t always have a chance to watch, much less review some of my old favorites. But damn it sometimes you just have to make the effort and recently I did just that. So I busted out the Bava Box set and popped in Bay of Blood.
The movie starts off just like a traditional Giallo, complete with the black-gloved killer. We see an older woman in a wheel chair being stalked and finally killed. But shockingly the camera pans up above the killer’s black gloves and his face is revealed! Why does the movie show us the killer so quickly? Well that is because another person dispatches him quickly. This sets up the mystery of the movie. Basically you have this Bay surrounded by some expensive property that was owned by the woman that was killed in the opening. There are several people interested in how valuable the land and her estate are. So we have many suspects. Though they do get picked off one at a time, as well as anyone who has the misfortune of showing up for a swim!
The twists are one of the reasons that I love Bay of Blood so much. It starts off like a standard Giallo, but then sort of takes off in unexpected directions. You really never know who is doing the killing until the movie is nearly over. When it is revealed it makes sense and is satisfying. Though Bava saves another unexpected and fun twist for the last scenes of the movie. From start to finish there is always something interesting on screen making Bay of Blood quite a bit of fun to watch. I don’t really want to talk much more about the plot and spoil it.
Let me talk some about the talent behind the camera. First of all I need to talk about director Mario Bava. Whether his films are in black and white or in color like Bay of Blood they have a unique visual style. The camera is always moving around, either panning over the scenery or following the cast in thru the buildings. This makes the movie as interesting visually as the plot is. This is especially true of the 1st 7 minutes of the movie where the woman is stalked and the story is setup without a single line of dialogue being uttered. Yet the movie still has the ability to grab the audience’s attention and keep it. Also I wanted to mention how well the music is paired up with the action on the screen. Between the camera work and the score this movie is chocked full of atmosphere.
Of course one of the reasons that most genre fans talk about Bay of Blood are the effects and kills. Quite simply they were ahead of their time in both exaction and brutality. Characters are killed off in rather nasty ways like blades to the face and getting skewered in bed. I don’t know but I find these very inspirational and memorable. I mean who could forget these kinds of scenes… Just saying it, now I’ll move on. There is also a neat bit with a squid on the face that was oddly creepy. If you haven’t figured it out yet the gore hounds will be pleased.
If you haven’t’ taken the time to check out Bay of Blood and you consider yourself a fan of the horror genre you really must do so now. Plus it can be had in a box set with several of Bava’s other movies at a good price. I highly recommend Bay of Blood.
3 ½ out of 4
reviewed by John Shatzer
© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer
